When it comes to competition, the prevailing theory is that it’s better to be ahead–and stay ahead–from the get-go rather than fall to second place at any point. Sure, it’s possible to come back from behind, but isn’t it better to not have to suffer the pressure you feel when you know you’re being beaten?
According to Devin Pope and Jonah Berger, two professors at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, this may not be the case. Pope and Berger began studying the psychology of competition by conducting a survey of college basketball games. They found that in more than half (51.3 percent) of the games where one team was down by one point at halftime, that team went on to win in the final. The professors went on to conduct their own tests and found that subjects who were told they were slightly behind their competitors in a competition would come back stronger in the second half and actually outperform the other party.
It’s interesting to think of the implications this could have for motivation in business. Maybe if we told the American auto industry that it was only slightly behind its competitors abroad, car companies could figure out a way to bail themselves out. Well, maybe not, but it’s worth considering.
